The Music
Instrumental Treason ia film which contains NO DIALOGUE. The goal of this film — the very thing that makes it unique — is that all of the musicians' feelings and attitudes towards each other are expressed either filmically, through juxtaposed images, or through the music itself — especially the mutiny, which is expressed in jazz.

This is a film about an orchestra... An orchestra of forty-five classically trained musicians on the verge of a meltdown.

Their conductor, a proud authoritarian, intends — like he always has — to rule over them with a demanding baton. The music must be played perfectly — at all costs.

Some fear him. Some loathe him. Some love him. Tensions are high.

On this particular night the conductor makes the mistake of pushing his orchestra too far. This is the night when mad desperation ultimately takes hold of those who hate him, forcing them to fight against the conductor — and the small number of faithful musicians who support him — or be subject forever to his severe methods.

Finally, on this night, there are those in the orchestra who find the strength to mutiny...

All the music is original. The symphonic portion — which consists of three movements (each approximately five minutes in length) — was written by German composer Niels Müller. The jazz portion (the "mutiny") — which creates, essentially, a fourth movement — was written by jazz bassist and composer Ben Wolfe.

When the mutiny occurs, both musical forms — classical and jazz — are played simultaneously, resulting in a cacophony that is resolved only after the winning musicians finally emerge victorious.

Listen to Samples
Please enjoy some samples from the film's soundtrack. These are clips taken from the actual recording session that took place one day prior to the shoot. Although on a tight schedule (the budget allowed only three hours in which to make the recording), the musicians worked hard to make a truly great soundtrack.

Visitors have three options for listening to these clips:

• A QuickTime version of each clip (which is a smaller file)
• A RealMedia version of each clip (which streams in real time)
• An mp3 version of each clip (which is a larger file that downloads to your hard drive)

The "Jazz Rehearsal" sample — of Ben Wolfe's jazz score — featuring Jof Lee, Rob Scheps, Ron Steen, Ed Bennett and several other fine Northwest Jazz musicians comes from a rudimentary, mono recording made at a February rehearsal. This recording was made without the professional, high-quality sound mix of the final soundtrack, but it's great music nonetheless!

Instrumental Treason Clip

Play Sample

View a Film Clip
Please enjoy the following short sample from Instrumental Treason.

This clip of the film's "Third Movement" was transferred to video from the workprint (a low-quality print made from a film negative that is used for editing). Due to the inherent "jumpiness" of a workprint — which contains taped-over splices when an edit is made — and the current limitations of viewing films over the internet, this sample is intended only as a fun peek at the film as it was being edited, not as the end product. Therefore, please bear in mind that the final version available below is of of a much higher quality.

View the Entire Film
This download of the complete film is approximately 300MB
and will require the installation of KonTiki Secure Delivery software.

If you experience any difficulties hearing or viewing any of these samples, you may also need to download the latest versions of either: